Who is Deceiving Whom?
by AnHeiressofaSOLDIER
Summary: Before Ephemera went missing, unintentionally standing up his new friend in the process, he had one last conversation with Master Ava/the Vulpeus Foreteller. This is that conversation.


**Who is Deceiving Who?**

Ava remembered well when she'd been sitting with Ephemera just a little bit ago, her legs resting against the fountain she had sat on with a biting sharpness.

There, they had discussed many a thing, her and her dandelion: the disagreements between herself and the other Foretellers, Ephemera's new friend, and how Ava was even planning to leave everything in Ephemera's hands… if it came down to it.

All in all, it had been a heavy conversation, but one that had needed to be had. There was something about Ephemera's freedom that called to Ava, and made her think that perhaps his was the right way.

And it was for that very reason that she had now invited him to her room, to hopefully discuss things a bit more trivial… and for him to remind her of the light she should have been finding in herself, but had not been lately.

"Master Ava," Ephemera muttered, as he took hold of a doll in the Foreteller's room and began shaking it up and down in his arms with much emphasis.

At this, Ava had to smirk, for the shift of wind he was creating was serving to ruffle his hair just the slightest bit, and she was once again there to contemplate just how much like a gale he really was.

"I'm supposed to be meeting with my odd friend at the moment, y'know. I promised this kid I'd meet 'em, and I hate to go back on that. I even left you earlier so that I could hasten to the side of the person, but…"

"But you like my teasing attitude, Ephemera? Is that it?" Sitting back on her soft, plush bed—so much better than the concrete her legs had had to endure against the fountain earlier, even if her skirt had been in the way to somewhat spare them—Ava tried to entertain just the idea of that.

And indeed, Ephemera didn't seem to be thinking much of this idea at all, as his nose wrinkled in distaste and he ran a hand through his silver locks.

And though the boy was most certainly with her now in hopes of gleaning important information from her, Ava wished that it wasn't so.

She was sick of thinking of dire things lately—and she seemed to be doing more trying to ward these things off than any of her companions—and she wanted to be around someone who could make her laugh and forget, if for just a moment.

And that person… why could it not be Ephemera?

"F-f-forgive me," Ephemera stammered—something that seemed very unlike him, to Ava, for she'd gotten the impression that he was usually very confident, maybe even arrogant.

But if he really was in such a state now, then Ava already knew that he was uncomfortable, and just what he would say, didn't she?

And there was even a more giddy side of her that wondered if it was because of all the excessive pink that Ephemera was seeing around him through her room. If her space had been of another shade, would he have been so eager to leave? Ava did not think so.

"Forgive me, Master Ava, but I thought that maybe you had a change of heart and would tell me about your Master. If that… if that's not the case, then I think I really must be going. It's already bad that I have to be called a liar to my friend, but in these darkening times, I want even less to be one who has fallen under false pretenses."

Ava flinched. And if nothing else, that seemed to give Ephemera pause and the idea to rethink his words, the Keyblade Master saw.

Good… it looked as though she was evoking some light and understanding within him—how right she had been to entrust their future to him, Ava especially saw now: especially when he gently and kindly set her doll back on the shelf where he'd found it—while he made her see the darkness in her.

Yes… Lying was a form of darkness, wasn't it? Something that they were all trying to fight. And even if she had had good reason to make Ephemera lie to his friend for her now, it was still very much a sin.

And somehow, in attempting to save the light, she had failed to see just how far she'd fallen from it: and now she'd even passed her blame onto another, Ephemera—for him abandoning his friend was truly not his fault; this was most unforgivable.

As it stood, Ephemera was right… he should not have come here, Ava saw, even if she did have questions she wanted to ask of him herself.

If anything, it really should have been his new friend he was paling around with at night—not one of his superiors under mysterious circumstances, as the others would no doubt see it; and so Ava was struck with the sudden notion to shew him away. And preferably, she would do so before his Chirithy even showed up.

"I'm… I'm sorry, Master Ava. I just hurt your feelings, didn't I? I apologize for that, and I want you to know… to know that I trust you. We might not know each other well yet, but we do seem to get on well, and I trust that you're doing the right thing, so please: tell me I didn't dampen our relationship before we could even really start it."

"I…" Now it seemed it was Ava's turn to trip over her words. How very unbecoming of her. She hadn't at all been like this since she'd been tested to meet the mark of the rank she was in.

She had thought her nervous, schoolgirl-type days were over, but apparently that was not the case. She wouldn't let Ephemera see this any more then he had to, though.

Getting up from her bed—and seeing that this was an all around good idea, and probably something she should've done from the start, despite her hurt legs—Ava headed over to Ephemera and thought that maybe now he'd hear what she had to say: just why it was that she had brought him here.

"This isn't proper in the slightest, Ephemera," Ava told him, as she padded across her wooden floor to come over and put a hand on the boy's shoulder:

In her opening statement, she was very much throwing herself under the bus and she knew that.

She wasn't sugar coating the truth or what she'd done, because if they were to defeat the darkness, she knew that the first place to do so would be the type that had taken root inside of her.

"But I just wanted to converse with you. Not- not about anything major, mind you, but just of nice things. I enjoy your company, Ephemera, and I think 'nice things' are something that have become too long lost inside our respective home of Daybreak Town.

A troubling thought, isn't it? For our humble abode is named very much after the beginning and entrance of light in the day—and when is anything more pleasant than in the beginning?—but already through my people, that light and its idea is beginning to fade. And if I can only find it again with you, then I'm afraid I'll clutch onto it and hold onto that possibility for eternity, if I have to."

Somewhere along the way, during her empowered speech, Ava had found that she was no longer just holding onto Ephemera's shoulder, but was actually holding his hand in her own against his heart—the most vibrant thing in her world, for he was the one thing she hadn't come to doubt yet—and as for Ephemera? He was looking at her with a single tear running down his face.

Clearly, her words had touched him some, but it was in a way that Ava didn't know how.

She wanted to believe that it was the way of the light—that he had heard her plea, and now perhaps wanted to join her in her plight even more—but she had seen cards of the future: the future that her Master had foretold.

And in quite a few of the cards, the people pictured in them were crying one single tear, too. And that future… was one where darkness reigned supreme.

So… was Ephemera doing a similar thing because he felt the renewing, rejuvenating power of light in her words—and was sad at the possible loss of it, if they didn't do the right thing—or was he already moved by the darkness?

As an answer didn't come to her, Ava ended up biting into her lip, nervously.

And as a single drop of blood fell from it to land on Ephemera's hand, entangled with her own, she didn't like what that seemed to be hinting at at all.

Her faith in Ephemera was beginning to shake now, like maybe his had with her, and somehow that was the scariest thing of all.

Stepping away from the youth—and his eyes seemed to bulge a significant amount in the process, for he'd just moved to put a hand on her now injured lip: a movement that didn't end up meeting its mark—Ava ended up standing in front of her bookshelf.

She was trying to hint to him that her Book was right behind her—and that if something were to happen to her, he should come right to this place and find it: fight for the light, as it were—but Ephemera didn't seem to understand.

Instead, Ava sighed resignedly—feeling the slightest bit fearful—and told someone she'd like to call her own "friend" a truth she had not yet meant to:

"Ephemera… one should beware of the darkness, but one should also beware the light fragments we use to fight them with, as well. After all, if we are conjuring beings from a future where the light has already been destroyed, doesn't that mean we're bringing darkness into this 'world' this very moment?

"Stay away from the darkness, Dandelion. But more importantly… stay away from the people we call to fight the darkness. Specifically people who dress a certain way, like-"

And Ephemera's answer to Ava's words, was to laugh nervously, scratch the back of his head some, and walk towards her door—undoubtedly to go and do what he deemed necessary.

Faster than even Ava could blink, Ephemera had disappeared before her eyes. But she did see the last slight nod and smile that he'd given her before doing so. Maybe…

 **Author's Note: I recently wrote this after falling in love with Kingdom Hearts Chi's story, after I finally got caught up with it. LOL.**

 **I also wrote this because I was shocked and appalled to see that there doesn't seem to be any Chi fics on fanfiction, and not even the option to choose any of the characters from it exists! That clearly needed to be remedied!**

 **Anyway, I'm not entirely sure what this is. Or if it went in the direction I wanted it to. But since we're still in the dark about Chi a lot, I guess it's impossible to make something more substantial than this?**

 **I should also probably admit that this was originally supposed to be a shipping fic, BUT then I realized that I think I read Ephemera and Ava's characters wrong and dropped that.**

 **The reason I think I got them wrong is because I watched the most recent Chi scene, when I started writing this, before the one prior to it was translated. IDK why the most recent scene was translated before the second to last one either, but because of that, my view of events might have been skewed.**

 **Like, when I watched the most recent scene first, I was like, "Aww. That's cute. Ava knows of Ephemera and even his friend, the player. That means that scene with them at the fountain must have been full of adorable stuff of them talking."**

 **Only to finally SEE the scene at the fountain translated and be like, "Well, wait. Crud. I guess I was wrong? Like, Ephemera DEFINITELY seems to be suspicious of Ava and trying to poke her for information. Oops."**

 **So, if the characters are extremely OOC in this (though to be fair, I don't know if we know enough about any of them yet for anyone to believably write them in character?), that's why.**

 **You know what? Let's just see this as my Halloween fic, and that's the reason why the characters might be somewhat acting not like themselves. I have them masquerading for Halloween. IDEK. Maybe that works?**

 **Especially since the story I ORIGINALLY intended for Halloween (a SoKai one-shot), probably won't get done now, since I've been so sick.**

 **Anywho, I've ranted enough. Happy Halloween, everyone! I hope you have a great and nice one!:D**

 **And write some KH Chi fanfics, people. Please, I'm begging you!**


End file.
